Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Pray for the teacher strikes

Well, this is the worst the teacher stikes have ever gotten. Usually they just strike for a couple of weeks and then go home. This time they're taking a lot longer. Interestingly enough they are the highest paid teachers in Mexico and they get a three month salary bonus at Christmas, compared to the normal two week bonus. The governor already offered them $5.5 million, but they didn't take it. I think now they want to impeach the governor or something. Of course, they will still block stores and government projects and such. I heard that he threatened to use high pressure fire hoses on them to get them out of here, but he didn't. Instead he called in the military and the police. This morning they came in dowtown and starting shooting tear gas at the teachers from helicopters. Apparently the teachers had tear gas, too, and were fighting back. They also started looting a few jewelry stores downtown. Two teachers were killed along with one chiled. Forty teachers were put in jail and six are missing; it's unclear exactly how many were hurt.

Because of all this I had to stay around the whole house all day long. I was planning on going down to Santo Domingo cathedral and have a coffee across the street from it, and just relax reading a book or bloggin. Maybe another day. I really hope that the teachers don't hurt my time down here. I sure don't have much time left when you think about it. I guess the teachers should be gone once the presidential elections are over in early July.

In other news, Mexico is doing pretty well in the World Cup. Everyone down here is excited for them. The Poland/Germany game today was great! Poland lost 1-0 but they have an exceptional defense and a great goalie. There was a great part where Germany shot on the goal three times in a row. The first one the goalie bounced away. The second one bounced off a Polish player, and they third one the goalie bounced away, too. Then there was a foul, but otherwise there would have been a goal with a fourth shot that did go in. A little later Germany shot twice within two seconds on the goal and both times the ball bounced off the top part of the goal. It was pretty intense! A lot more action than American football.

Update (6-15-06): Looks like it's quieted down. Most of the teachers went to schools around the city overnight to keep safe and stay warm. So far there hasn't been any action and it looks like (hopefully) they will come to an agreement with the government soon.

All pictures from http://www.publicenemy.com/pb/viewtopic.php?t=28404&sid=1First pic: A big rally. I believe they were holding a mock trial of the governor, found him guilty, and voted to impeach him.Second pic: Taking over the Zocalo. There were about 50,000 teachers all together.Third pic: Teaches on strike. Most are nice like these teachers appear to be, but some want action and violence.